The ability of wireless sensors to remotely provide data in real-time opens up a wide variety of health and safety applications. From the perspective of an individual, the ability to determine, prior to consumption, whether a food item contains harmful bacteria or ingredients to which the individual is allergic is highly desirable. From a community perspective, recent national and international events have increased the need for distributed systems for the continuous, real-time monitoring and detection of chemical agents, biological agents, radiological agents, and other hazards over wide geographical areas.
Because of the cost of sensors and sensor readers, broad deployment of a sensor network over a large geographical area or widespread use by individuals is currently not feasible. In addition, the imprecision of sensors generally requires cross validation to eliminate false positives, adding to the number of sensors that must be deployed for each application. Another problem with large geographical deployment is that the wear of sensors or sensor surfaces requires sensors to be replaced on a regular basis, adding to the cost.
Hence, what is needed is a wireless sensor that is inexpensive, small, and flexible. Furthermore, what is needed is a sensor reader that is inexpensive and accessible to the general population.
The need also exists for distributed sensor networks for the real time monitoring and detection of hazardous materials and/or conditions in a highly cost effective way.